Monday, 8 March 2010

The LA Press Conference

Six former members of Scientology’s elite Sea Org cadre joined forces in Los Angeles to denounce the violence and abuse inflicted on its most dedicated members.

On February 12, six former members of Scientology’s elite Sea Org cadre joined forces in Los Angeles, speaking out at a press conference to publicise the abuses to which they had been subjected in Scientology.

While all of them had spoken or written about their experiences in the past, this was the first time that so many former members with such a wealth of experience had come together to tell their stories.

The only comparable event would be last November’s speech by Senator Nick Xenophon, which drew on the experiences of eight former Scientologists, as set out in the letters they wrote to him.[1]

The US ex-members however have yet to find a politician willing to speak up for them, despite growing interest from the mainstream news media in the stories they have to tell.

The event marked the second anniversary of Project Chanology, the Internet-based campaign to expose the abuses inside the Scientology movement.

The six speakers were:

Marc Headley who has over the years been one of the best sources of information about what went on at Gold, or Int Base, the 500-acre compound near Hemet in California where Scientology leader David Miscavige and other senior executives are based. His book Blown For Good details his 15 years there;[2]

Nancy Many, whose time in the Sea Org included being sent to Scientology’s punishment programme, the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) when she was five months pregnant. She too has told her story in a book My Billion Year Contract;[3]

Laura DeCresecenzo, who was recruited into Scientology’s elite cadre, the Sea Org, at the age of just 12. Married by the age of 16, she was pregnant at 17, but was pressured into having an abortion. She was so desperate to get out of the organisation she swallowed a mouthful of bleach to convince them she was a suicide risk. Like Headley, she is suing Scientology;[4]

Jeff Hawkins, who during his 35 years inside Scientology worked his way up to become a senior marketing executive for the movement. Like Headley, he spent many years at the Int Base near Hemet. He eventually left after repeatedly being subjected to Miscavige’s violence;[5]

Will Fry, who has only been speaking out relatively recently about his experiences. Raised in Scientology he worked on its sales team and described the hard sales techniques he and his colleagues used.

Maureen Bolstad, who of the six has been speaking out against Scientology the longest. She got pulled into Scientology as a teenager and spent many years being held against her will at Int. Base.[6]

Emmy-award winning journalist Mark Bunker, who has run the XenuTV website for more than a decade, acted as moderator for the event.

“The stories that they have to tell are really pretty amazing and shocking and in some cases even horrifying,” he told the assembled journalists.

“I’m certainly glad that they are standing up and speaking out – and more and more people doing that every day.

“And we are so thankful for all of you folks here in the media who are covering this, because the problem is the government isn’t doing anything about these abuses, which have been systematic and have been going on for decades.

“So the more attention that’s drawn to these abuses the better.”

Bunker suggested that Scientology should be considered more of a corporation than a religion.

As the speakers told the stories, he said, the audience should bear one thing in mind.

“If a regular business did to their employees what Scientology is doing to the people of the Sea Org, it would never be allowed to happen – never.

“But because they have this cloak of religiosity, Scientology has been able to get away with some really horrendous crimes and we are hoping that if enough people speak out that the government will actually do something about it.”

[2]I have covered Marc Headley’s story elsewhere on the site. For his 2008 speech in Germany, see here; for details of his lawsuit against Scientology see here. A review of his book will, eventually, follow, but see here for a summary.

[7] Mark Bunker has the entire event, with the speeches broken down into handy video segments, on his site. The press pack issued on the day is available here – and hats off to those activists who put together the transcript, without which I would never have had time to complete this write-up.

About the Author

Jonny Jacobsen is the author of the Infinite Complacency website tracking violence and abuse in Scientology and also contributes to Tony Ortega's Underground Bunker on the same subject.. He trained as a journalist in the late 1980s with the Birmingham Post and Mail group and spent several years freelancing in Scotland before moving to Paris in 1994, where he is still based. His first investigative piece on Scientology was in 1996 as a reporter/producer with Radio France International. You can reach him at jonnymcj(AT)hotmail.com.

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A Piece of Blue Sky

Click on the image to order the new edition of Jon Atack's definitive history of Hubbard-era Scientology. To learn more about the battle to get the original version published read "Atack Unchained" below.

For the Record

I approached Scientology several times to get their response to the allegations set out in the first section, "Violence and abuse in the Sea Org" regarding David Miscavige's violence and the abuse at the International Base: nothing so far.

Unless otherwise specified, all quotes come from interviews with the author.

Don't get me started: If you want to know why I write about Scientology, read this account published in Scotland's Sunday Herald on November 8, 2009. Since they never properly formatted it on their website I've also posted it here, in a slightly more readable form.

The Paris Trial: In answer to a question from a reader: these are my first-hand reports from the court, not a round-up of the French press coverage.